This article was originally written by Chan Wern Shen on the old Lowyat.NET website.

Knowledge is king in today’s fast paced IT driven world, and the pursuit of knowledge can bring you to many places thanks to the Internet. However, even though the Internet hosts a myriad of useful information in text, audio and video, nothing beats learning from experience.

“Malaysia has a lot of talented and knowledgeable individuals, but lacks the habit of sharing information,” says Kanagaraj Krishna, Chairman of MyNOG. “With the establishment of MyNOG, we hope to encourage the practice of knowledge sharing.”

MyNOG, short for The Malaysian Network Operators Group, is a relatively new initiative that was set up to bring together network operators from around the country. Through this platform, MyNOG to not only hopes to encourage individuals to share their knowledge with their peers, but aims at creating a network of like minded individuals.

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“One of the main problems that we (network operators) face is that we’re usually confined to our area of expertise,” continues Kanagaraj. “The engineers, marketers, implementers and regulators all see things from different angles, and usually don’t understand the problems or challenges that the other parties face.”

To make up for this gap in understanding, Kanagaraj became an active member of regional conferences like APRICOT (Asia Pacific Regional Internet Conference on Operational Technologies), where he witnessed how understanding a problem from a different prospective could be immensely beneficial from a technical standpoint.

It was from this platform where he met peers from the network operators industry who shared his sentiments on the problems and the need to address it for a better domestic/regional Internet ecosystem. Drawn in by their willingness to share experiences and knowledge sharing culture, plus the encouragement from these groups, Kanagaraj decided to take the NOG concept home by setting up MyNOG. The concept of a domestic operational group is not something that is new, with quite a number of initiatives setup out there to address their own needs like SANOG, NZNOG, and JPNOG.

“We loved the concept of other APRICOT and other NOGs, but not all of the topics that were discussed there were relevant for Malaysian operators,” muses Kanagaraj. “By setting up MyNOG, we could take the experience back home and address more targeted issues since Malaysia has its own set of regulations and restrictions which operators outside of the country wouldn’t understand or have to deal with.”

Set up as a mailing list based non-profit group, MyNOG hosts discussions that cover the domain of IP, transmission, systems, security and emerging technologies. With the end goal of improving the quality of Internet and IP-based services in Malaysia, MyNOG is now taking the next step by organizing the MyNOG-1 Conference.

“People working in bigger companies have easier access to training programs and seminars which are held both locally and abroad, but those who work in smaller companies or start ups could miss out on these resources due to a tighter budget,” Kanagaraj explains. “By setting up the MyNOG-1 Conference, we hope to provide everyone with the a platform to share their knowledge and experiences with their peers.”

Set to take place at SKMM in Cyberjaya on 16 January 2012, some of the key highlights of MyNOG-1 Conference will be an update on MyIX (Malaysian Internet Exchange) current operations, a talk from Jaring on their experience in facing DDoS, talks by Pacnet on IPV6 and the new Asian IP backbone architecture, and a panel discussion on IPV4 address depletion and IPV6 deployment strategies.

So if you’re a senior or mid-level technical staff of an ISP, a network operator, a regulator, a technical decision maker, or just someone who is intrigued with the technical ways of the Internet, then head on over to the MyNOG website to register for the MyNOG-1 Conference for a nominal registration fee of RM99.

To find out more about MyNOG, the MyNOG-1 Conference or to be part of the MyNOG mailing list, visit www.mynog.org today.